Scholar, Bell-Commission Member Laud Reactions to Report

Washington--Even though commissions and critics have been
recommending radical reforms in the American educational system since
the early 1950's, "little in the way of restoration of learning has
been accomplished," said one of the nation's foremost conservative
scholars last week, in a response to the report of the National
Commission on Excellence in Education.

Russell Kirk, author of The Conservative Mind and more than 20 other
books, discussed the commission's recent study at a seminar at the U.S.
Capitol last week. Mr. Kirk's remarks were followed by an analysis of
the commission's report by Annette Kirk, his wife, who was one of the
commission's 18 members.

Mr. Kirk said he had assumed that the commission's report, like
those of previous reform panels, would contain "more nonsense than
sense.'' But the final report, he said, has attained far more attention
than he ever thought possible. Even the National Education Association
"will not find it possible to promote mediocrity over excellence now,"
he said.

Nevertheless, Mr. Kirk said the commission had "avoided" discussing
some of the more "fundamental" reforms needed in education, including
tuition tax credits, vouchers, and school prayer. President Rea-gan, he
said, was "more bold" in interpreting the report as an affirmation of
the Administration's education policies.

The commission was also remiss, he said, in not addressing "the
ethical character of a good education. I see the decline of public and
private morality as more alarming than the technological rivalry with
other nations," he said.

Mr. Kirk, a long-time critic of the nation's educational system and
a supporter of the rights of private schools to be free from state
regulation, spoke at the invitation of the Heritage Foundation, the
public-policy research organization located here.

He applauded the commission for recognizing the decline in American
education, but he suggested his own "principle causes of this decline."
Among them, he listed: the "smug complacency of the general public,"
educators' concern with credentials rather than excellence, the
"incompetence" of teachers' colleges, the role of the courts in
politicizing education, the growing power of teachers' unions, and
drugs and the lack of discipline in the schools.

"Now and then, I marvel that our schools still strive to teach
anything to anybody with the handicaps imposed on them," Mr. Kirk
said.

Regarding teachers' unions, Mr. Kirk added his opinion that both
major unions would not reject the suggestions in the commission's
re-port. "The American Federation of Teachers is genuinely interested
in educational improvement, but the National Education Association is
bent upon money and power," he said.

Mrs. Kirk described her work on the commission as one of "consensus
building."

"We had people of diverse views [on the commission]," she said.
"Setting aside our own ideological views, we came together as people
interested in education."

She said education groups, such as officials of teachers' colleges
or unions, that might have opposed the report if it had been written
five years ago, might be willing to accept reforms now. "All of these
people see the writing on the wall. They know what is happening," she
said.

The Kirks expressed different opinions about whether tuition tax
credits, which they support, might be passed by the Congress or the
legislatures in the current climate for reform. Mr. Kirk said enactment
of the Reagan Administration's bill "is conceivable in the present
climate of public opinion." But Mrs. Kirk said passage was unlikely at
either the state or federal level.

She added, however, that she hoped "tuition tax credits and vouchers
could be viewed not as a threat but as another means of achieving
excellence in society."

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